'A Walk in the Woods' is a political comedy adapted by Randeep Hooda and Faisal Rashid from American playwright Lee Blessing's most notable work of the same name.

A
two-act play casting prodigal theatre artists Naseeruddin Shah and
Rajit Kapur, 'A Walk in the Woods' is directed by star theatre
performer and Shah's wife Ratna Pathak Shah. Debuting in August
2012, the adaptation has had multiple re-enactments ever since. This
production was directed for The Motley Theatre Group (1979) by
theatre kingpins like Naseeruddin Shah and Tom Alter among other
notables in the theatre circuit.

In
Focus

'A
Walk in the Woods', Blessing's original had sprung up from a
real-life politico-diplomatic crisis situation back during the
absolute peak of the cold war. Historically, the US and the USSR,
helming the cold war arms race had sent two negotiators, Paul H Nitze
and Yuli A Kvitsinsky from the American and the then Soviet sides
respectively to an official session in Geneva. As they had taken an
unofficial stroll together to achieve a consensus that wasn't
coming through in their official talks, they had eventually come to
agree, later to be turned down by their egoistic governments.
Blessing had taken this premise to weave a fictitious situation.

The
adaptation is however set in the context of India-Pak border crisis
closer home where Kapur and Shah have played the roles of the
negotiating neighbours from the Indian and the Pakistani sides
respectively. In the peace advocating state of Switzerland, they
first meet to find themselves completely closed to the demands of
each others' governments but as months rolled past, the negotiators
– now friends – found agreeable terms in their governmental
policies. But as the historic rival governments would have it, the
months-long talks did not come to fruition despite efforts from both
negotiators.

Hooda
and Rashid's adaptation from the original is a seasoned effort with
politically correct yet massively witty dialogue execution. Both Shah
and Kapur's performances could put Blessing's original cast in a
spot, while Ratna Pathak Shah's able direction ensured that no
minute of the play went stiff.